Sad Hill Cemetery
by Penny Charlotte Brown
Summary: It was all coming for this; Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes would soon meet at Sad Hill Cemetery, where 200 000 in Confederate Gold was buried. They all knew the name of the cemetery, but only Blondie knew the name on the grave. "200 000 dollars is a lot of money. We re going to have to earn it." Blondie said challenging them into a dual...


It was all coming for this; Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes would soon meet at Sad Hill Cemetery, where 200 000 $ in Confederate Gold was buried. They all knew the name of the cemetery, but only Blondie knew the name on the grave. "200 000 dollars is a lot of money. We´re going to have to earn it." Blondie said challenging them into a dual…They were all after the treasure, but only one could get his hands on it. But which one of the three?

 **Sad Hill Cemetery**

Angel Eyes had arrived at the Sad Hill Cemetery. Now, he knew he needed to find the two, who knew the name on the grave…Blondie and Tuco. It didn´t take long for him to find them. He caught the two in front of a grave…"Arch Stanton"…was the name written on the grave…"Arch Stanton"…He noticed that Tuco was digging but Blondie was just standing there watching Tuco do his job. …but two could dig faster…

He threw a shovel towards them, surprising them. "Two can dig a lot quicker than one." he told them pointing his revolver at them "Dig"

Tuco did what he was told, but Blondie just stood there, lighting his cigar. That made Angel Eyes ready to pull his trigger. As Tuco noticed that, he grabbed his shovel, ready to fight.

Angel Eyes turned towards Blondie: "You´re not digging."

"If you shoot me, you´re not gonna see one cent of that money" he answered calmly. His answer surprised them both.

"Why?"

"I´ll tell you, why…" he told them and kicked the wooden cover off of the grave revealing only a skeleton…"there´s nothing in there"

"You son of a…" he shouted to Blondie lifting his shovel up ready to hit him.

"you thought I could trust you?"

So, Blondie had it all. He was the only one, who knew the name on the grave. He had tricked them.

"200 000 dollars is a lot of money. We´re going to have to earn it."

"How?"

Blondie looked around him, and picked up a stone. "I'll write the name on the bottom of this stone"

Blondie looked at the gun that Angel Eyes was pointing at him. He wasn´t going to write anything on the rock while Angel Eyes had his gun. "The gun" Blondie said, and Angel Eyes put it away. After that Blondie started walking towards the square of the cemetery while writing the name on the stone.

Blondie walked to the middle of the square, stopped and turned around, so that both of his rivals could see it, how he put the stone onto the ground…after which he straighten himself up, threw his poncho onto his shoulders revealing his gun belt. All this time he had been closely watched. He looked at them as he started to retreat slowly backwards.

That was a sign that the battle between life and death had begun…

A dual…for three…

Then Angel Eyes took few steps forward, and that alerted Tuco. The two were staring at each other. Angel Eyes lowered his gaze only to be certain that Tuco wouldn´t use his gun too soon. He watched while Tuco slowly freed his gun to hang on his right side. Then Angel Eyes slowly started to walk, again. This time he turned around so that he could keep an eye on the two, while he was walking to take his place at one corner of the square. After he started to move, the other two did the same.

It was all quiet, only separate croaks of the birds broke the silence. The three men slowly advanced to their positions, each one standing at one edge of the square, only a gunshot away from each other. The rock that would make any man happy, was in the middle of the square, and the one, who could draw fastest, would have all the money…

This was worthy of it. All of it. It was still morning, but it was hot already. But it wasn´t the heat that made both Tuco and Angel Eyes sweating. It was the excitement and anticipation of the final battle…all three of them were now in position. Their gaze became more intense, their nerves were on the edge of bursting, but they all knew that this wasn´t the time for that…they needed to concentrate, keep a close eye on the two rivals, each in their own turn. The question was: Who would draw first?

Seconds felt like hours as they watched each other, slowly their drawing hands started to advance towards their revolvers. Blondie was still holding his cigar in his mouth not making any expression…

Angel Eyes slowly advanced his hand towards the gun on his belt…

The moment drew closer…

Then…

The moment had come…

They all grabbed their revolvers as fast as they could…

It was Blondie, who fired the first shot, but he was only slightly faster than Angel Eyes. Tuco had pulled his trigger, but it didn´t do anything. He tried again, but nothing…it was empty; at that moment he realized that Blondie had tricked him, again: this time by taking his bullets off at some point without him noticing…

Meanwhile Tuco was struggling with his gun, Angel Eyes, who had been injured by Blondie's bullet; fell onto the ground, right between the two newly dug graves.

At that instant Tuco lifted his gaze towards Blondie, who was repairing to shoot again, and he had a sudden sense of fear, but Blondie didn´t seem to care about him: he had another target: Angel Eyes, who repaired to fire his revolver, again. But, just like the last time, Blondie was quicker, and his bullet killed Angel Eyes, who fell into one of the graves.

Blondie then looked at Tuco…

Then Blondie started to walk towards the middle of the square, towards the stone…Tuco watched, as he walked closer, at the same time firing his gun twice: first to shoot Angel Eye´s hat into his grave, second to accompany the revolver that Angel Eyes had dropped at the edge of the grave.

Only then Tuco got angry, he ripped off his gun of his shoulders, seeing while Blondie smiled and reached the stone taking it into his hand.

"You pig! You wanted to get me killed! When did you unload it?!"

Blondie:"last night" he said approaching Tuco and taking his revolver into his hand "you see, there´s two kinds of people …my friend, those with loaded guns" pulling the trigger of the empty gun…" and those, who dig… you dig" he looked at Tuco.

"Where?"

Blondie showed Tuco the right grave. As they approached the grave, Blondie dropped Tuco´ s gun on the ground. The grave was right beside the grave of Arch Stanton…"Here" he said pointing at the grave.

"Un…unknown" he read the writing on the grave…"there´s no name on it!"

"There´s no name here, either" he said showing the other side of the stone. It was empty, he hadn´t written anything on it. "You see, that´s what Bill Carson told me; it was the grave marked "unknown" right beside Arch Stanton" he explained while taking a shovel and placing it onto the sand on top of the grave.

"Eeh?"He asked Blondie as he saw the shovel.

"Go ahead"

Tuco started to dig, he was anxious to get his hands on the gold. He quickly cleared the sand that had been on top of the grave, opened the cover, took the gold packs from the grave and placed them onto the ground. Then he took the shovel and broke one of the packs revealing the coins. He was in ecstasy. So much money. Just for the two of them.

"Blondie!" he shouted happily "It´s all ours, Blondie!"

"Blondie?" he looked up, and as he saw the rope hanging from the three his ecstasy turned into…fear? The gold coins flowed from his hands as he stood up.

"You´re joking, Blondie. You wouldn´t play a joke on me like that?"

"It´s no joke, it´s a rope, Tuco. Now, I want you to stand up there and put you head into that noose…"

Tuco said nothing, but he knew Blondie was serious; he was pointing his revolver at him. Tuco silently got on the wooden gross, the same one that had hidden the gold. It was unsteady, put he was able to get on it, and then he put his head into the noose…

Blondie tight first Tuco´ s hands on the back of his body, and then the rope around his neck. Tuco felt how the rope started to strangle his neck. He watched as Blondie took his horse closer to the square. Ready to leave…

" Well… now seems just like in the old times…" he said while approaching the packs…"four for you…and four…four for me." he said as he put the packs onto the back of the horse. After that, he himself got on his horse.

"Hey Blondie, Blondie…"

"Sorry, Tuco" and gave a sign for the horse to start off…

Blondie started to ride away, leaving Tuco all on his own on the unstable wooden gross. Tuco looked at the packs that were still lying there on the ground. Those were all his, but…

"Blondie…"

"Blondie!" he became more desperate. Surely Blondie wouldn´t leave him like that? Not on the unsteady gross, that would break anytime soon…or would he?

Tuco watched as Blondie rode further away, eventually disappearing from his sight. "Blondie!"he yelled after him.

"Blondie!"

…then, Blondie reappeared, now with a rifle, took a steady position, aimed…and shot the rope so that Tuco fell onto the ground, hitting his head on one of the packs…

That made Tuco angry…Blondie was just…

Tuco got up, and ran after Blondie as he rode away…

"Hey, Blondie!" he screamed after Blondie "You know what you are?! Just a dirty son of a…" a...a...a...a...

AAAAAH….

The End.


End file.
